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Sew Lovely

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Remember when I wrote about wanting to quilt? (You can find that post here.) Well, I did it! I have actually been working on it for several months, but it was a surprise. Last weekend, I gave my sweet sister-in-law my first ever baby quilt! It is not easy to give away your first quilt as a gift, but I had been planning to give it to her sweet bundle of joy from the moment I started making it.

I have to give a LOT of credit to my grandma! She helped me through every step! We went shopping together back in February for some fabric to get started...that step is a lot harder then I thought it would be. I really thought I would be able to find a couple of prints that I liked and a couple of solids that would tie it all together. WRONG! I looked and looked and looked. There were several prints that I liked, but nothing looked that great together. Luckily, my grandma is a master at this! She helped keep me away from fabrics that were going to be difficult to use and helped me pick out the fabric that I ended up purchasing for the project. I am sure that was not an easy job for her...I am not exactly the easiest person to shop with. Sorry, Grandma!

Anyway...I ended up getting a jelly roll of cool, watercolor-like fabric. There were several different greens, blues, and purples that went together SO perfectly (at this point I didn't know that the little babe was a boy).

Once we got back to my grandma's, I was ready to start working! The jelly roll fabric was already cut into the width that we needed...YIPPEE for making the job a little easier! I spent the whole afternoon sewing, sewing, and sewing some more! By the end of the day I had a beautiful (and finished) quilt top! I am still in shock that I got that part done so quickly!

I decided to have the top sent off to be machine quilted, and I am glad I did! Grandma suggested a loopy design, and it looks so great.

The next step was adding the binding (a.k.a. the colorful edge that ties it all together) This step took me the longest. It involved sewing the binding to the front of the quilt and then hand stitching it around to the back. I wouldn't say that it is perfect, but I am pretty pleased with how the whole thing turned out!

I am by no means an expert quilter, but I do plan on making another one sometime soon!